Sunday, July 27, 2014

Jan Richardson .The Next Step in Guided Reading. *BOOK TALK*

So back in March I was given the opportunity to go to the Virginia Reading Conference.  What an AMAZING experience!  I was able to sit in on Jan Richardson's seminar and was quite impressed.  I was able to get her book right from the conference.  I am just a little ashamed I am just now opening it to really get into the meat of it.  So I figured I would go through Chapter by Chapter.  If I get through 2 chapters a week I will be right on track for back to school time!  Everything wrote below are my own thoughts and some resources that I have found, I have linked back to everything possible as well as given credit.  I did not go into detail with this chapter, but kind of outlined Guided Reading as we know it just highlighting some of my favorite parts of the whole process.  So here goes!

Chapter 1:  Preparing for Guided Reading

Sometimes there are just so many resources and things that we do have at our fingertips, Guided Reading seems a little overwhelming of what should be used and when it should be able to "fix" a students' problem.  Guided Reading can be daunting!  This chapter is an overview that gives suggestions on how to implement a balanced reading program in the most effective way.

In order to start Guided Reading you must have an established classroom community that knows how to do the following:

  • how to work with others
  • solve problems without asking for help
  • how to use work stations or centers
  • know and understand rules and routines
Once these things are implemented in the classroom you can start with the Balanced Reading Approach which most of us have heard of: read-aloud, shared reading, and independent reading.  The Read-Aloud portion can either be classic or interactive where students are engaged and discuss what they've listened to.   Shared Reading is usually done whole group where the teacher instructs students with specifics skills and or focus on fluency.  Independent reading is important and has to be taught so that students have quality reading material that they want to read and can understand.  

The book goes on to talk about different schedules to help you implement Guided Reading in the first couple weeks of school.  Also it talks about different literacy workstations.  These are some of my favorites. 

Writing (I hope I linked everything back correctly to their correct home)
  
Beautiful Writing Center
Class Writing Journals from Teach-A-Roo

Word Study - I use Words Their Way in my classroom, but there are lots of ways to use Word Study in your classroom, I find this very helpful to teach word patterns as opposed to having students memorize spelling words. 

A Teacher's Guide to Words Their Way
Second Story Window does an amazing job giving a thorough walk-through for Words-Their Way
Level Skill Focus Sound Sorts Magnetic letters/White boards Sound Boxes Writing Guide

This is from Jan Richardson's site, and is linked back to the full document, that goes through Skill Focus and what should be done. 

Read the Room
Super Cute resources from Really Roper!  

Computer 
Aren't these adorbs!  I love what Totally Terrific in Texas did for the Computer Choice cards.  And, its a freebie!
Some great sites for on-line learning!  Can't find the link for this though

Basically whatever works for you - USE IT!  Maybe start with just a couple things and build on it when you get more comfortable!  However, you should always encourage independent reading.  Have a nice library and help your students find books that they will enjoy!  It is recommended that there be a Reading Workshop Contract
I will be using these along with my Daily 5 choice cards. Students can check off each Daily they go to in order to keep track each week. The clipar...

There should also be use of an Independent Reading Record.  Students should be able to take notice of the title, author and genre of the book read.  So if students come to you not understanding Genre's that is something that needs to be taught right away and you should probably have something for students to refer back to either in your library or in their Reading Notebook.   Here's an example for older students/grade levels.
Reading Log for Chapter Books
Students should also be made at least once a week to write an Independent Reading Response.  These will help keep students accountable. Depending on your students' ability you can make this as easy as drawing a picture of their favorite party and writing a few sentences or having them construct a letter to you while critically thinking about situations that happened throughout the book. There are other things instructed to include in their Reading Notebook but the thing to remember is that it is basically a working document for the year to show what students know and understand.  Where students are practicing skills taught during shared reading those particular items should not be graded. 

Within this chapter Jan did an amazing job to give pointers at the end to help manage things that seem to really pluck certain teacher's nerves, ie too much noise, how to get everything done, and how to stop interruptions.  There were also lots of different resources for readers response!  The next chapter is all about Assessment so I am excited about figuring out the Jan Plan!  



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